Mark Davoren, Author at North West End UK

8Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Tosca – Opera House, Manchester

Tosca is an opera in three acts by Italian composer Puccini, structured as a through-composed work, with arias, recitative, choruses and other elements musically woven into a seamless whole. Set in Rome in June 1800, the city is threatened by the advancing army of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the inside of the church of Sant' Andrea della Villa, Cesare Angelotti (Eugeniu Ganea), former Consul and now an escaped political prisoner, has taken refuge. He hides on the arrival of a Sacristan (Valeriu Cojocaru) before the painter Mario Cavaradossi (Vitalii Liskovetskyi) appears to continue work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene, based on a blonde-haired woman who is in fact Angelotti's sister, and he compares her to his dark-haired lover, the singer Floria Tosca (Elena Dee). Cavaradossi promises...

6Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sheila’s Island – Liverpool Playhouse

It’s Bonfire night and Sheila (Tracy Collier), Denise (Abigail Thaw), Julie (Rina Fatania), and Fay (Emily Jane Kerr) are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual outward-bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District. Our intrepid heroines find themselves manufacturing weapons from cable ties and spatulas and create a rescue flag with plastic plates and a toasting fork. Questions are asked; truths are told; dirty washing is aired. Is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress and a sleeveless jumper? What is Julie’s husband really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this bloody team building exercise when they...

Much Ado About Nothing (2022) – RSC, Stratford-Upon-Avon

4Apr

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Much Ado About Nothing (2022) – RSC, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Shown on BBC4 at the end of its run, this is one of Shakespeare’s funniest pieces full of delightful word play and it is often wondered whether it is the missing Love’s Labour’s Won, the latter half of a comic double bill with Love’s Labour Lost. Interpretation is key in theatre to keep it alive for new audiences and certainly there have been no holds barred with this production from director Roy Alexander Weise, indeed if there was ever an attempt to outdo Baz Luhrmann then this would be it with its rich tapestry of sci-fi staging and costume changes outdoing each preceding one to the pulsating medley of Afrobeat, reggae, funk and soul from Femi Temowo. However, as I often find with productions that focus on the sensational and hide behind the music, when you peel away the superfluous ...

Don Carlos – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

27Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

Don Carlos – The Metropolitan Opera, New York

The Met Opera’s original five-act French version of Verdi’s epic opera of doomed love among royalty is in fact an amended version of the 1867 Paris edition with some omissions as well as the addition of elements from later Italian versions, but if the intention was to serve up the best version possible then there is no doubt that this comes pretty close with the magnificence of its delivery. Photo: Ken Howard It's a tough story with far too real parallels to events unfolding in the Ukraine which serves to reinforce the piece’s uncompromising assessment of the ways of human nature as we are thrust via a love triangle into the courtly world of 16th Century Spain complete with its religious Inquisition and destructive suppression of protest in Flanders. At almost five hours, there is...

27Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Killer’s Conscience – The Black-E

City Theatre’s latest offering is an original psychological thriller written by Joe Gordon and directed by Carly Fisher, where friends Sean (Louis Cashin-Harris) and Elliot (Leo Hewitson) and his girlfriend Toni (Eleanor Smith) hang out at Darrius’ (John Ball) bar. At work, Sean is confronted by his old school bully Lewis (Joe Gordon) looking for a refund but doesn’t receive the expected support from manager Max (Leanne Cooney). It’s clear Lewis’ behaviour runs in his family when we later meet Isiah (Johnny Sedgwick-Davies) before things turn from bad to worse for Sean when he discovers sister Charlie (Demi Wilson) is now dating Lewis. What more could possibly go wrong for him? Well, a disciplinary with area manager David (Kieran Foster) is the least of his worries when things take a...

The Ghost Train – The Little Theatre, Birkenhead

23Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

The Ghost Train – The Little Theatre, Birkenhead

To many people Arnold Ridley will always be the impeccably polite Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army, but before he made the catchphrase, ‘May I be excused sir?’ famous, he wrote more than 30 plays of which only The Ghost Train, penned in 1923, achieved notable success, running for 665 performances at St Martin’s Theatre and being adapted for cinema three times. Almost a hundred years on, The Carlton Players under the direction of Jen Henry resurrect this delightful comedy thriller, importantly set in 1925, where a group of passengers are stranded in a Cornish railway station waiting room on a dark and stormy night. They have missed their connection because the ‘daft as a brush’ Teddie Deakin (Mark Prescott) pulled the communication cord on their train after losing his hat out of the window....

Chatback Theatre’s If This Is Normal to be<br>published by Methuen as Liverpool date added to<br>the UK Tour

15Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

NEWS

Chatback Theatre’s If This Is Normal to be
published by Methuen as Liverpool date added to
the UK Tour

Chatback Theatre’s coming-of-age hit If This is Normal, will be published by Methuen next month and will be available at all venues during their UK tour this April. The news comes the team announce an exciting new stop at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre. Critically acclaimed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019 and VAULT Festival in 2020, the show follows a trio of teenagers navigating the no-man’s land between childhood and adulthood, complicated by unfiltered access to technology and pop-feminism. The full cast returns from the previous Edinburgh Fringe Festival and VAULT festival runs with Aoife Smyth as Alex (On Railton Road, Brixton Base; If I Can Get This Part Right At Least, Nottingham Playhouse), Isambard Rawbone as Madani (Midnight Hustle, Rogue Productions/ VAULT Festival, Ham...

13Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Alcina – The Lowry

The staging of Handel’s Alcina presents a challenge and from what I saw tonight, the jury is still out; if we focus instead on the delivery of some of the finest vocal writing ever written and all-round musicality, then this performance should be considered a success. Searching for her fiancé Ruggiero (Patrick Terry), Bradamante (Mari Askvik) arrives on an island belonging to the enchantress Alcina (Sky Ingram). Bradamante has adopted the disguise of her own brother, Ricciardo, and is accompanied by her protector, Melissa (Claire Pascoe). Alcina’s sister, Morgana (Fflur Wyn), instantly falls in love with ‘Ricciardo’ despite already being in a relationship with Oronte (Nick Pritchard), whilst Bradamante is distraught when she discovers Ruggiero and Alcina are lovers. Within this medle...

10Mar

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Opera North: Rigoletto – The Lowry

Femi Elufowoju Jr’s interpretation of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1851 masterpiece for Opera North by and large works although I’m yet to be convinced about the zebra. We open as the Duke (Roman Arndt) leads his courtiers in drinking and debauchery whilst his jester, Rigoletto (Eric Greene) mocks all those around. The arrival of Count Monterone (Byron Jackson) in a failed attempt to save his daughter results in a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto. Rigoletto is tormented by the curse, and we discover he has a daughter, Gilda (Jasmine Habersham) whom he jealously guards, but the Duke has already spied and fallen for her – or has he? The courtiers have also tired of Rigoletto’s antics at court and under the steer of Marullo (Themba Mvula), they trick him before carrying Gilda off to the palace. R...

Idlib – The Uniting Church in Garden Lane, Chester

28Feb

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Idlib – The Uniting Church in Garden Lane, Chester

Written and directed by Kevin Dyer, and produced by Laura Duncalf, Idlib started as a piece of prose as a prelude for a play that morphed into a short story before becoming the script for a monologue performed online in 2021. Based on the story of a Syrian baker who wanted to go home and real interviews with Syrian refugees and escapees across Europe, it tells the story of a woman (Paislie Reid) who has hope. Drawing upon this background, the evening began with the making of bread, an act so simple and pure that it is a mainstay in many communities around the world with its rich metaphors resonating throughout religious communities from Christianity to Islam to Judaism. As Dyer mixed the essential four ingredients, adding a glug of oil and yoghurt to replicate the Levant, the guar...